If I Only Could
by LizKilljoy
Summary: The Doctor wanted to take Donna on a holiday to a tropical planet. But when they arrive, something went wrong and they end up as prisoners of the inhabitans, who are apparently not a friend of foreigners...
1. Chapter 1

It had started off as a totally normal day in the TARDIS. The Doctor was talking all morning about some things he had to adjust at the console and Donna had started reading a book because she didn't understand any of his explanations anyway. She occasionally would look up when the Doctor would throw random parts over his shoulder, muttering to himself, screwdriver between his teeth and a frown upon his face.

"Everything ok?" Donna put book aside and walked up to the console. The Doctor was balancing a green orb in some kind of retainer and was enthusiastically screwing down a metal part to it.

"Yeah…wait…wait…aha!" The green orb flashed to light and the Doctor looked triumphantly to Donna. "See? Fixed." He put the orb back into the console.

"For what is it for?" Donna looked quizzically at the little blinking gem. "Well, it's a device to predict the probability of the void collapsing around us and dumping us off in a world without any time at all." Donna looked terrified. "That is possible? I mean, time collapsing around us and…" She looked at the Doctors face and stopped as she saw him fighting back tears of laughter.

"Oi, Timeboy, stop doing that!" She hit him playfully in the side,

"I'm sorry, I just…" Another fist of laughter hit him and Donna crossed her arms disapprovingly. "So?" He had caught his breath again and cleared his throat dramatically. "Donna Noble, witness the wonders of one of the TARDIS' most wonderful devices."

He pressed a button on the console and the ship was immediately cooling down several degrees. He beamed at her. "Air conditioning."

Donna was totally taken aback. "Air Conditioning?! Why do you need air conditioning in outer space?! It's not like we're on the Bahamas or something." The Doctors smile grew even wider. "Oh, you will see." And with that he hurled around the console and sent the TARDIS through space and time, always looking up to Donna grinning like a 5-year-old.

They landed with a crash that sent them flying into the bumper seat, laughing. "Oi, can't you land a bit softer next time?" Donna rubbed her back.

"But that would be no fun! Anyway, welcome to the planet of Sahanna, year 3,059,007. Slavery has been abandoned, corrupted regime overthrown and out of the ruins rose a beautiful, tropical holiday paradise!" He held out his hand to Donna. "Fancy a walk on a silver beach?"

"Silver beach?! You're kidding!" "Nope, I'm not. Well, it's not actually silver, but the minerals in the sand make it look like it."

The Doctor took a pair of Sunglasses out of his pocket, put them on and took Donnas hand. "Hey, wait that's unfair!" She turned around and ran back through the console room, leaving the Doctor at the TARDIS door. "What…? Donna!" She came back shortly after, a big pair of sunglasses on her nose. "If you have one, I'll have one, too." He smiled at her and opened the door in one swift motion. "Welcome to the beautiful paradise of Sahanna!"

At first they saw nothing but bright light. Even with sunglasses on, they had to shield their eyes against the bright sun that greeted them.

After a few moments, their sight cleared a bit and the Doctor started to walk towards great hill of…sand. Practically everywhere was sand. Not like a tropical beach, but like a desert. "That's not right…"

Donna had to run to keep up with the Doctor, who already had reached the hilltop. She was not even halfway atop of it, as the Doctor raised a hand, signaling her to stop. Donna froze at the spot, feet buried in the hot sand.

"What is…?" But she couldn't finish her sentence, as the Doctor turned around abruptly and stumbled down the sandy hill, nearly falling over. Donna thought she could make out a sound in the distance, like some sort of summing, which grew louder with every second.

"Donna!" The Doctor had reached her and immediately crouched down low, pulling her down with him. "We shouldn't be here!" All excitement was gone.

"But Doctor, what's wrong? Well, it doesn't exactly look like you've described it here…Is something the matter?" The Doctor seemed very haunted, frantically looking over his shoulder to the hilltop. "Donna, listen, I've made a mistake. I'm so sorry. I've miscalculated the year. We're in year 3,000,000. 59,007 years before the planet became that beautiful thing I wanted to show you. At this time, now, the regime is cruel and merciless and makes short work of foreigners. Especially different species."

Donna's eyes grew wide and she, too, looked up to the hilltop. "What do we do now Doctor? Let's go back to the TARDIS then and adjust the time again." Suddenly the summing sound was there again, even louder than before. "Doctor, what is that!?"

"It's them, Donna. Listen. The people on this planet are telepaths. Even if they didn't see me, as soon as I had reached that hilltop, they felt me. They know we're here, we wouldn't be able to reach the TARDIS in time…Oh god, Donna, I'm sorry."

Donna could see that the Doctor's thoughts were racing; he brushed with his fingers through his hair, making it stick up in ridiculous ways. "I don't know what to do Donna, I…I…" He looked so desperate and she didn't know why. What was he not telling her? This wasn't the first time they've met species who were not exactly friendly. But he always found a way to talk them out of tricky situations.

"Doctor, who are they? What do they want? Oi, talk to me Timeboy!" But the doctor seemed lost in his own panicked thoughts, hopefully figuring out a plan. The summing had grown even louder, reaching a stage where it started to hurt Donna's ears, so she covered them with her hands. "Doctor, can't you do something about that? Doctor?!" She put a hand on his shoulder and apparently snapped him out of his thoughts.

"There is a way…this should work…yes!" The Doctor looked Donna straight in the eyes, making her flinch a little. "I'm sorry Donna, there is no other way. Do you trust me?" "Eh…yes, of course! But what is this about?! Stop talking nonsense to me!"

A shadow appeared on the hilltop, making the Doctor panic even more. "I have no time to explain. I'm so sorry." And with that he placed his hands on Donna's temples, closing his eyes in the process. Donna felt a warm sensation sweeping through his hands straight to her brain. He opened his eyes again and took her hand. "Whatever happens, I'm sorry." "Stop saying that! And what did you just do?"

But Donna never got an answer to that, as roughly ten creatures came rushing down the hill. The Doctor yanked them to their feet, standing in front of Donna and trying to shield her from the fast approaching mop. The summing sound had changed to a screeching so loud that it hurt. In a few seconds they were surrounded by creatures, those faces where wrapped in black cloth, only their piercing yellow eyes visible.

"What…?" Donna wanted to say something, but the Doctor indicated her to be quiet. She wanted to protest, but did not come any further than breathing in, as one of the creatures stepped forward and addressed them both. As he spoke, the black cloth wrapped around his face moved as if it was alive. "You will regret that you came here, Timelord. And your … companion." He gave Donna a glance of appraisal as if he could not assign her to anything he knew. Donna wanted to celebrate the victory of an alien creature not recognizing the human race just now (which they normally did as soon as they saw her), as she felt the warmth in her head increasing to a burning hotness.

She watched the Doctor taking in a sharp breath beside her and sinking to his knees.

"Doctor!" She wanted to reach for him, when one of the creatures put a hand to her head and the hotness yielded to a piercing pain. The world around her went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Donna's mind was clouded, as if a heavy fog was surrounding her brain. She could hear distant voices that sounded somewhat familiar, but she wasn't able to tell who they belonged to or what they were saying. Her head felt like she had been run over by a truck, and she could feel the stone cold floor beneath her bare arms, apparently laying on her stomach. A pair of boots walked into Donna's field of vision, kicking her in the shoulder.

"She's awake. Let's take her to the other one. Maybe then he'll talk."

Donna wanted to protest, but as she was wrenched upright, her head started pounding so bad, that she didn't manage more than a weak struggling. "Let me go...!"

Two figures grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of the dark room she had woken up in, and through a cold hallway. Strangely, this place was much colder than the desert in which the TARDIS had landed. So either they were somewhere underground, or these people had a very good air conditioning system.

The guards stopped in front of a heavy looking door, which resembled no material Donna has ever seen before. It looked like a strange combination of metal and stone, which opened as soon as they approached.

The whole way to this room, the guards had remained silent, and still without a words she was tossed through the door.

"Ah, look at that. The sleeping beauty has arrived." Inside, Donna was met by a pair of yellow eyes, belonging to a lean, tall figure. The creatures, which they had encountered in the desert, as well as the guards, had been wearing this strangely moving black cloth over their faces, but this one's face was completely visible. The Xitie, as the Doctor had called them, were a species with black skin, and their whole features reminded Donna of a cat, from the yellow eyes to their unusual face shape.

The Xitie moved a few steps towards her, and Donna drew back reflexively, bumping into the now closed door. She hadn't noticed that it had closed, nor that the guards were gone. She had been too occupied with the figure in front of her.

"What do you want from me? Where is my friend?" Donna tried to stay calm, but felt her heart hammering in her chest. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen, and she was afraid she would meet her end on this godforsaken planet; alone, in an underground cellar, surrounded by cat-people.

"Oh, your 'friend' is fine. Our best men are taking care of him. But it seems like he isn't very talkative. Maybe you can help him out with that."

The Xitie gave Donna a smile, which sent shivers down her spine. This was bad.

She wanted to draw back further, but was grabbed by the arm and dragged through the room and towards another door, taken aback by the strength the alien creature seemed to possess.

* * *

The Doctor was held in a sterile grey room, containing nothing but an iron chain embedded to the floor, which was binding his wrists and made it impossible to move further than one or two meters.

They had been separated by the Xitie, an unconscious Donna had been taken god knows where, while the Doctor had been questioned. They wouldn't tell him where they had taken Donna, so he refused to tell them anything they wanted to know. Which did not end very pleasantly.

Suddenly a door swung open, making the Doctor jump. The Xitie, who had been questioning him earlier, burst in, struggling to keep hold of Donna.

"Let go of me, you...argh!" She was roughly shoved into the room, causing her to trip and fall before the Doctor's feet.

"Now that you are reunited...maybe you want to tell me why you've entered this planet, Timelord." The Xitie spat out the last word with so much hatred and disgust, that it raised Donna's hackles. But the Doctor made no move to answer; instead, he yanked Donna to her feet and took her face in his hands. "Did they do something to you?!"

"N-No, I...I woke up in that room and they dragged me here. What do they want? We didn't do anything wrong, did we?" She just then seemed to notice the chains around the Doctor's wrists. "...Did we? Doctor, what's going on here? What did you do?"

It wouldn't have been the first time that the Doctor had but himself in danger, and everything screamed that he had done it yet again.

"Oh, a rather quick thinking female you have here, Timelord. It must be quite entertaining for you." The Xitie had started to casually walk around in the room, hands behind his back.

The Doctor ignored the comment, Donna's face still in his hands, but she felt his fingers tighten. "...Doctor?"

His eyes reflected a mix between rage, hatred and something Donna couldn't quite place. Hurt? Shame?

In a strangely cold voice he asked her again: "Did they hurt you? Or did something happen that you couldn't ...understand?"

Now Donna was completely clueless, and a bit hurt, she had to admit. This alien had just implied she was dumb, and if she hadn't known better, she would have said that the Doctor had done the same.

"Understand?!" She slapped his hands away. "I tell you what I don't understand. We wanted to go to a beach, and now I'm sitting in a cell god-knows-where, with people who seem to have a problem with you, or with both of us, and I think I'm getting a freaking migraine." Donna rubbed her temples. That strange warm feeling from back in the desert was there again, but this time more burning than pleasant.

The Xitie had been patiently watching them arguing. He had walked around them in a circle and stopped now behind Donna.

"Now, let me explain that to you." His mouth was so close to her ear, that she could feel his breath on her neck.

"You entered this planet without permission. You appeared out of nowhere, crossed our borders without a single alarm going off. The perfect spies. If they had not been so foolish to send someone like him. But good for us, he will tell us everything. Your whole plan will be an open book, we'll only have to wait long enough."

He stepped away from Donna and gave her a smile which showed razor sharp teeth.

"But we have nothing to tell you. There is no plan. We just got lost, right Doctor? Doctor...?"

But she got no right away answer, as the Doctor was staring intensely at the floor in front of him, jar set, teeth pressed together.

"...yes. We've miscalculated our destination and our type of travel often goes unnoticed by safety systems. But we are no spies, just lost. We mean you no harm and did not intend to interfere with any regulations or restrictions of your people."

He lifted his head again to look into the Xities eyes, and Donna was shocked to find a whole cocktail of emotions displayed in his eyes: Regret, rage, distrust, hurt and...pain. She also just now noticed the way the Doctor was behaving: His voice low, teeth pressed together and his cuffed hands clenched into fists. Also, the way he was talking resembled nothing of his usual adventurous levity.

The staring duel went on for seconds, which seemed for Donna like decades. She did not dare to say a word. The Xitie was the first one to look away, just to start pacing the room again. „Timelords, always claiming their innocence...I know, you are just ‚exploring' the universe, ‚observing'. But everywhere you go, you leave nothing but destruction behind. I can see that. But not here, not now. And if you don't want to tell me what you are hiding, maybe your little human friend will. With a little...assistance, of course."

And with these words, he pushed Donna against the nearest wall, hands on her throat.


End file.
